Is it Really Parity?

I really enjoyed the Virtual Choir video that Dr. Delaney sent out this week. The question she posed is a good one: is this collaboration? So to consider this question, I thought about the characteristics of collaboration offered by Friend and Cook. Some of the characteristics were obvious. It's obvious that this was voluntary, the shared goal is the production of this video, and there are some shared resources. In this case though, there is a clear leader and creator of the project, and he does not share decision making processes, he takes all responsibility of the failure or success of the project, and he is most likely doing more work than the other participants. There is no parity because he has veto power. If he doesn't like someone's video, he could just leave it out of the final project. This made me wonder about a live choir or band. In a live choir, all members are held responsible for success or failure. The choir only sounds good if everyone in it sounds good. In a live choir there is also more equal participation. This recording just required one good take from each member, but a live performance requires consistent quality.
That leaves the question of parity. Is the conductor of a band or choir really equal to all the members? I think that this really depends on the context. For example, a high school choir teacher definitely has authority over all the members. A church choir director, however, might be leading the group, but the group members have trusted the conductor to lead them. In a high school choir, the members are obligated to stay for the semester or whatever the duration of the class may be, but if a church choir member is unhappy, he or she may leave the choir at any time. But even if the choir director doesn't have the power to control the singers, are they really equal? I think that it really comes down to the attitude that the director and the members take toward each other. If the director believes he or she is in control, there will not be parity, but if he or she has the attitude of equality, there will be a chance of parity.
This really made me think about the implications of parity and equality. I know the idea is to leave any existing rankings out of the collaborative task, but is that always possible? Even if you know that you have equal decision making power in the meetings, does it really matter if it's on your mind that you don't have that equality outside of the meeting? I guess what really made me think of this was a conversation I had with a special education teacher. We were talking about why some students were on the general course even though a trade school track would suit them better. The teacher told me that the teachers do not have the resources or support to complete the due process required to bypass a parent objection, so they usually do not even try. Even if it would be highly beneficial to the student the teachers just go with what the parents want. Even though they are supposed to be equal, in this case the teachers' decisions are greatly influenced by the knowledge that the parent basically has this veto power over them. I think that while in theory it is great to be able to leave our rankings at the door and honestly collaborate, more often than not, the powers that are supposed to be ignored end up playing a huge role in the interaction.